The visitors dominated proceedings at St. James' Park but Raheem Sterling scored the only goal of the game after 31 minutes, with City hitting the woodwork three times in total as they failed to make their superiority count.

Newcastle offered some threat of a late comeback but otherwise defended remarkably deep in a match in which they had only 22 per cent of the possession.

Guardiola was a little unhappy not to have had the points secured before the hosts at last began to push forward but was thrilled that his players found a way to pick apart their defence en route to an 18th successive victory.